This is a very interesting year for democratic governance in Bangladesh. The national parliamentary elections will be held at the end of 2018. The last national elections, in 2014, was mired in violence and was controversial in many sense.

Notwithstanding the serious questions raised about the credibility of Khulna and Gazipur city corporation elections, we had in the recent past free and fair elections in Narayanganj, Kumilla and Rangpur cities.

The Myanmar government announced on May 31 that it will establish an independent commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations and related issues following attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) on Myanmar security posts in August last year.

The just-concluded Khulna City Corporation election may be considered as the beginning of the run-up to the next parliamentary polls. Elections to four other city corporations are expected to be held in the next few months before the national polls which may be held in December. Five years ago, the same things happened in the run-up to the last parliamentary election held on January 5, 2014.

A former Chinese Communist Party official who is once tipped for a top leadership post is sentenced to life in prison for bribery on Tuesday, the latest senior cadre to fall in President Xi Jinping's sweeping anti-corruption crusade.

President Hassan Rouhani says on Sunday Iran has plans to respond to any move by US President Donald Trump on the 2015 nuclear agreement and the United States would regret a decision to exit the accord.

Heroic and brave brothers and sisters of Independent Bangla Desh. In the name of your President, Bangla Bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Government of the People's Republic of Bangla Desh, we salute you and pay homage to the departed souls of the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives in defence of their motherland. They will shine in our memory as long as Bangla Desh exists, as long as a single citizen

Almost seven months into the latest round of influx of Rohingyas into Bangladesh— around 700,000 have arrived since August 25 of last year—Myanmar has done next to nothing to show that it is serious about the implementation of the repatriation deal signed with Bangladesh and the safe return of the Rohingya.

Unfortunately, leftist leaders in our country remain in the periphery of such TV talk shows, and unlike the traditional reach of the two major parties across the Bangladeshi diaspora, the reach of the Left remains low and unconvincing.

One of the first things that Biplab Kumar Deb did even before taking oath as the new chief minister of Tripura was make a phone call to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and seek her cooperation for the development of the landlocked northeastern state.

The above quote is a strong and clear manifestation of the Indian Supreme Court's endeavour to protect rights of the media as it recently announced that freedom of speech and expression of the media must be allowed to the fullest and the press may not be hauled up for defamation for “some errors” in its reporting.

Opposition Leader Raushan Ershad's appeal on Tuesday (February 27) to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to relieve three of her party MPs from the council of ministers to help the Jatiya Party emerge as the “real opposition” in parliament, sounds ridiculous. But in the present political context it is not something that would leave anyone dumbfounded. Her husband JP Chairman Ershad, who has remained the special

In his last assignment as India's top diplomat, former Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar had paid a previously unannounced visit to the strategic Indian Ocean island of Seychelles late in January this year when the two countries signed a revised pact to develop military infrastructure on Assumption Island.

The saga of the Osman family reminds us of a basic universal rule: No one can undermine you until you undermine yourself. The controversial activities of the Osman brothers have continued to bring the family ill repute.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord (CHT Accord), signed in 1997 with the promise to end armed conflict and grant a host of benefits to the indigenous Jumma people in the south-eastern region of Bangladesh, has rather increased tension in the last 20 years.

Amidst widespread international outcry and faced with the strong diplomatic stance of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the Myanmar government has been persuaded to repatriate the Rohingya refugees, according to an agreement reached between the two countries late last week.

The Election Commission (EC) held a post-dialogue press briefing on October 26. At the briefing, the Chief Election Commissioner said that the commission must conduct elections in accordance with the laws made by the government. His statement, although significant, raises serious concerns.

The UN calls the Myanmar army's aggression against the Rohingya “ethnic cleansing”. “Ethnic cleansing” is a term invented by Slobodan Milosevic. It's a euphemism for forced displacement and genocide. It's an insidious term because there is no international treaty law against it, whereas there are international laws against forced displacement and genocide.